Bothers Greymon
by AbZHz101
Summary: Desiny chose him to help Mark the Saviours of the Digital World. It never said anything about him returning when that job was done. Now there is Eight Children and Nine Digimon standing against the evils in the Digital World. But will this make it easier or harder?
1. Chapter 1

The sun was coming up. Like it was waking the world up from a crazy dream. Honestly, giant flame-spitting dinosaurs fighting equally giant parrots that not only had arms but could shoot lightning? It had to be a dream. And yet… there were two people, two children looking over the ruins of a destroyed bridge not wanting to wake up.

"Greymon," a small girl in pink pajamas called. "Don't you want to play with me anymore?" No one answered the small girl's plea. Her brother merely stared at the carnage as the events of the last two days caught up with him. An egg from their father's computer, it hatching into a small black… thing- for lack of a better word. That thing changing, and telling his sister and him that its name was Koromon. Feeding Koromon from Miko's bowl, and the disaster that had brought about. Koromon getting big and jumping out the window with Kari on his back. Him chasing the two down. The giant egg in the sky. Koromon calling himself Greymon after he changed again. Greymon being knocked out. Him waking Greymon up with Kari's whistle. The final climatic battle. Had it… all of it merely been a dream?

It had to be… but then what about all this? What was real and what was fake? Was it too much to ask for a sign? "Kari," they heard. "I'll play with you and Tai again. Just let me sleep for now… I'm so tired."

The two raced to where they heard the noise coming from and found that their friend had reverted to a small pink blob. "Koromon?" the boy, Tai, nervously asked. He quickly cradled the digimon in his arms.

"That's me alright," the In Training replied. "Now can I please sleep?"

"No, mommy says you shouldn't sleep in times like this, you've got to stay awake!" Kari pleaded.

"Kari," Koromon told her. "I promise I'll wake up and play with you. I'd never break a promise. But I'm so tired. We've been up all night! And that last attack… I really need to sleep. But I'll wake up. We'll definitely play again." And with that the digimon drifted off to sleep.

"He's still breathing," Tai told his sister after awhile. They began to hear sirens in the distance. The rest of the day blurred together as the siblings saw many faces that they did not recognize and were asked many questions that they didn't understand.

One thing they did recognize was seeing their parents who ushered the two away while Tia still held the sleeping Koromon. "A break in and a terrorist attack that our children were in the middle of on the same night?" their mother asked their father. "Honestly, Susumu, if that is what this neighborhood is coming to I refuse to stay another night! I know it will be hard, but for the children's safety we have to move! It's just a miracle they weren't hurt!"

"I understand completely, Yuuko," their father stated. "I'll start looking for a place, and let my boss know my intentions."

"Thank you," she said sighing. "I'll do the same I suppose. This will be a huge change for them; I hope they will be able to understand when they are older."

Susumu looked at the children they were carrying in their arms, as their car had been mysteriously stomped flat. "I have a feeling they will be just fine. After all they already have a new friend," he joked motioning to what he thought was a plush doll in Tai's arms.

Yuuko laughed. "You're right, I suppose," she sighed contentedly. "You always are."

"Tai do you have all you're things packed the way you want them? The movers will be here soon," his mother's voice flittered to him as he looked through a cardboard box with most of his and Kari's worldly possessions inside as Koromon bounced up and down to look at the contents.

"Yeah, mom! But what about Koromon? He won't like being in the box all the way to Odiba!" Tai replied.

Yuuko smiled, the boy still thought that stuffed animals could be alive? Best to humor him, who knew how long it would last? "Then he'll come in the car with us how does that sound?" she called.

"Okay," Tai responded loudly before lowering his voice to what he thought his mother couldn't hear. "Now you've got to be quiet and still while were in the car got it, Koromon?" She laughed to herself again, _'Kids.'_

Fortunately for her world view she did not hear Koromon's assent and went on to check that everyone's things actually had been packed, after all children- and husbands- could be so forgetful.

"Here, Miko," Kari called to the family cat, who was steadfastly on the TV ignoring the girl. Her mother sighed, deftly snatched the cat off of her perch and had it inside a carrier before the animal had realized what had happened.

"I'll take care of Miko, sweetie," she told her daughter. "You run and tell Tai I'll be in one more time before the movers get here, alright?" Kari nodded and ran back into the room already yelling to Tai what their mother had told her.

Yuuko sighed as she thought over the last few weeks. Things had been so hectic. For the first few nights she and Susumu had refused to sleep away from the children afraid that whomever had come in would return to finish the job. No one ever did, however that didn't change the two parents' minds on the matter as they had told their bosses. Thankfully the issue was one the people at work could understand and they were able to leave on friendly terms. Actually both had recommended the same building they saw advertizing room in Odiba. A couple of quick calls to the owners, job searches, references, and money transfers- to the local bank and the landlords- and it was done. And today was moving day. A friend who owned a minivan was taking them out to Odiba while the movers brought along their packed items and furniture. '_Oh, have to remember to bring Granddad's old journals. Not only will they make great bedtime stories but those recipes- I can't afford to lose them._'

* * *

"Hey Koromon," Tai said when only he and Kari were around. "Not that I'm complaining, but… why haven't you gotten bigger… again?"

"I'm not quite sure myself, Tai," Koromon responded. "But then again neither you nor your sister has given off a weird energy spike.

"Energy Spike?" Tai parroted.

"Yep, whenever I'd change, or digivolve, I'd feel a spike in the flow of energy between one or both of you. I'd also get a hint of a desire too. Like when I went from Botamon to Koromon Kari wanted to be able to talk to me more easily. When I grew into Agumon you wanted proof that I could actually do it. And with Greymon you both wanted someone to protect you, and I wanted to fill the role, so I did," Koromon replied.

"Why do you call yourself so many different things?" Kari asked.

"See when we digimon digivolve we change species so to speak. Koromon is my In Training name, Botamon Fresh, Agumon Rookie, Greymon Champion. All digimon call themselves by their species name, it's a custom."

* * *

"Kari? Kari! Come on, get up! You'll miss the bus to camp at this rate! You've been waiting for this for all of summer break!" Tai said trying to shake her awake. The girl did not respond but her head brushed against his arm- it was too warm. He quickly got out a thermometer and took his sister's temperature. "Humh, too high to not be sick, but too low to call the doctor. Oh man, and since mom and dad have already left for grandma's, the fact that they have the camps number, I have to go and explain what's going on or they'll call the cops! And they probably won't let me go back after I show up either- at least not without parents," he spoke to himself. "Good thing I won't have to leave her alone."

"Koromon!" Tai shouted through the flat. "Take care of Kari while she's sick, okay? I'll try and fix everything at the camp. With any luck either we'll all be up there or back here by tomorrow!"

"Got it, Tai, but before you go you might want to take a look at this!" Koromon replied from the living room. Curious Tai walked in to see the digimon watching news reports on the recent disasters that were occurring around the world today.

Then he noticed things that they all had in common. "Digimon?" he asked aloud. "But what are they doing here?"

"No clue," Koromon replied. "But they seem to be making a mess all over the globe! I mean look at where these videos are coming from: South America, Africa, heck this one is from another area of Japan!"

"Too true." Tai put his hands behind his head. "Oh well, nothing we can do about it now. Just keep her safe alright?"

"Count on it!"

"I know I can," Tai said as he stepped out the door.

* * *

**This chapter has been edited. One of the few retroactive things I will do.**


	2. Chapter 2

Seven Children huddled together inside of a single cabin as they waited the freak blizzard to wear itself out. Tai was beginning to get worried. How was it that there was a snowstorm here? Snow Bear was in a city! What was probably worse was the fact that the camp hadn't let him tell his parents about Kari! He'd be having "words" with someone about that, or his mother would- one of the two. "I can't believe this storm knocked out my Infrared Internet connection," he heard Izzy, who Tai knew from school (he technically was the reason that Izzy was here), say.

"Seriously? Those tend to be finicky at the best of times," the tallest boy questioned, curious as to why this was such an astonishing event.

"Normally true but I made this one myself. It's incredibly reliable. Once while my family and I were on a trip we got caught in a minor hurricane, this baby kept us connected and at full speed the entire time," Izzy replied a hint of pride in his voice.

"Just what _grade_ are you in?" the older blonde asked.

"My parents want me to have friends my age so I'm still in fourth, but I do take online college classes," he stated not looking up from his computer.

'_Huh, learn something new every day, it can survive a hurricane,'_ Tai thought. Then he noticed something, or the lack of something… the wind wasn't howling anymore! "Hey guys come on, storm's over!" _'There's a lot I could worry about right now, but nothing I can do about any of those things so I might as well enjoy what I can!'_

* * *

"Tai… Tai… Tai, wake up! Come on, wake up!" Tai heard a _very_ familiar voice say.

And so he replied in his usual manner, "Koromon, not now, I'm sleeping- besides what if mom hears you?" Only for him to realize there was a problem with that statement. Koromon was at home- that made him jolt awake. Upon seeing that he was in a combination of Forest and Jungle questions began spilling out of his mouth like water from an open faucet. "Where are we? How did we get here? _Where's Kari_?" all came out in one breath.

"Who's 'mom?' We're in the Digital World, I don't know," and "Who's 'Kari?'" were how Koromon answered still bouncing up and down like the one time his mom had left an extra creamed an sugared coffee out.

"_**What do you mean 'Who's Kari'**__?_ **My sister- you know, the one who's **_**sick**_**- and that I **_**asked you to watch this morning**_**! Did you bonk your head **_**on impact or something**_! **'Cause you seem really happy about being in a world neither of us **_**have been to**_** and presumably have **_**no idea how to get back home**_!" Tai shouted back, a slight insanity creeping into his voice.

"Tai, you're scaring me," Koromon sobbed. "I don't know what you're talking about. I just met you today, but I've been waiting for you for such a long time… And today you came! But why are you mad?"

Tai looked like he was about to begin shouting again but when his mouth opened no sound came out. He stayed in that position for a minute, before opting to take another stance and begin again, but still no words came out. After this process had been going on for about a minute, Koromon perked up and asked, "Oh, are we playing 'Charades'?" Tai merely let out a frustrated grunt and massaged his temples at the question.

"Let me get this straight, you've never met me before today?" Koromon shook his… well his body signifying no. "And you've never been to my house?" No. "Never met my family?" No. _'Okay, so not the Koromon I grew up with.'_ "And you've been waiting for me for a very long time?" This time, he got a nod. "Dare I ask why?"

"Because we're… Partners!"

"Says who?" Tai asked, not meaning to be disrespectful or hurtful to the little guy, however he was dubious about the whole thing.

Koromon seemed not to mind if some of those tones leaked into Tai's voice when he replied, "I don't know. I just know it's true," while still smiling. Tai could feel a headache coming on. "Why'd you think I knew you, Tai?"

"A Koromon's been living with my family ever since he hatched from an egg that came out of dad's computer. I thought you were him," Tai replied. "Sorry I freaked out on you. You didn't deserve that."

Koromon still looked sad. The In Training was in deep thought over it. '_Another Koromon? And Tai was obviously close to him… But I'm supposed to be Tai's partner! Not him! But then, what do I do? If I try to take his place, Tai will probably reject me, but if I let this be, I'll be alone when everyone else has someone. I don't know what to do…_'

"Hey, Tai, I hard you freak out. Are you okay?" Izzy asked coming into view.

"Yeah, moment's passed," Tai sighed, scratching the back of his head.

"Well at least of the others are around we won't have to look for them. That yell was unmistakable, though why were you asking about Kari?"

"Long story…" Tai drifted off and refused to elaborate.

* * *

"Okay, so we're the only humans here, our supplies are limited, and we have no shelter to speak of, at least we have our health," Tai muttered the last part looking at the other people around who varied from acquaintance- to I-know-your-name- to Izzy, who he had been in soccer club with. So they were somewhat friends.

"What makes you think we're the only ones here?" Matt asked defensive.

"Because it's the Digital World, its only inhabitants are Digimon. Besides I didn't see any more of that 'Sky Mail,'" Tai responded in monotone. He turned to Koromon, "You guys need a better package delivery system, ever heard of FedEx?"

"Nope." "Figured."

"What are we going to do tonight?" Sora asked.

"Who said anything about there being a night? For all we know it could be blue skies twenty four hours a day, seven days a week," Matt stated.

"That would be illogical," Izzy snapped.

"Izzy," Tai sighed, "think back over today. I'm pretty sure Logic left with Summer. Or are you telling me that this is perfectly normal? As in, do _you _normally hide from two story tall bugs inside of metal trees? But anyway, let's try and find a cave or something."

"Well you seem to know what's going on," Sora pointed out.

"Really? I know a little about this place but not much," Tai said stunned. "I've bunked with one of this little dude's siblings for the last four years. He's told some interesting stories. But since he was born in our world he didn't know much."

"But what about the bathroom?" Mimi asked.

"Tree," came the straight-faced answer of everyone else except TK.

"That's disgusting!" Mimi said revolted.

"What if we're attacked?" Joe asked. "We could be mauled, or mutilated and killed and we're nowhere near any medical facilities!"

"Well, first off we stay in a group," Tai said trying to keep the boy calm. "We're less likely to be attacked if we stay together. And if that doesn't work then these little guys are usually pretty good in a fight."

"And you know this _how_?" Joe asked nervous.

"Remember that attack on the Heighten View Terrace bridge four years ago? Yeah, that wasn't terrorists. That was Greymon protecting me and my sister while he wailed on a Parrotmon."

"Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that!" "Me too!" "I was cheering for the dinosaur."

"Wait a minute," Izzy said. "We all _saw_ that event, as in with our own eyes, _saw_ it?" he received a round of nods. "And we all just happened to go to the same summer camp and were whisked away here? Does that sound like a coincidence to anyone else?"

"No," Tai admitted. "But by that logic, Kari should be here too."

"Fair enough," Izzy conceded dropping it for now.

* * *

**Felt I should add why Kari was left alone in the series last chapter, just forgot about the note.**

**Koromon just learned something very important about Tai, he doesn't have a Big Brother STREAK, he has a HIGHWAY. And that he might jsut have some competition, but he's at least going about it in a different way... for now.**


	3. Chapter 3

The first major decision the group had needed to make after escaping Kuagamon was whether or not to follow the river downstream and hope that it led to something that could be used as a shelter or follow it upstream and see if it came from the mountains where they might be able to find a cave or a system of them large enough to act as a base. One coin flip later and they were headed downstream.

The natural sounds were disrupted by a very unnatural sound. "Phones?"

"What was that about no other humans, Tai?" Sora jabbed lightly.

Tai, looked at Agumon, "You guys don't use phones do you?" Agumon and the rest of the Digimon shook their heads. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" With that they ran after their friends. On the beach was a line of phones. There seemed to be no connection to anything else, no power cable or visible connection to a wire. Well it was possible that they had a direct link to a wire seeing as they were in Digital World and all but it still seemed odd.

The others were already trying the phones though their frowning faces told the others that they hadn't had much luck. Tai had to laugh at the responses had been to whenever someone had dialed a number. Sora had gotten a phone that mixed up time and speed as well as adding nonsense time. Though Joe's first attempt had to take the cake. He might have actually gotten through to someone. Unfortunatly for him that someone had taken to yelling what he heard as "Son last oz delta man and a, _lot gentle normal is Tai trident oh de dome here_!"* and then the person slammed the phone down. It took Izzy about five minutes to realize that Joe didn't speak a lick of Spanish.

However Izzy wasn't fluent and couldn't access the internet for a translation so they had no idea _what_ the person had said. It was worse because that seemed to be a one-time thing, every other time he tried using the phone he got a language he could understand but the phrases made no sense. The others had taken up betting half their shares of TK's candy as well as the food for their lunch that was in the emergency bag on when he'd give up: Izzy had whenever he got too hungry, Matt called at when everyone else called dinner, Sora took when it got dark, Mimi said when the phones finally insulted him, and Tai, who had first suggested the bet and because of that was made to go last, shrugged and said when something blew up the phones. He had wanted Izzy's answer though Mimi's made everyone laugh. Matt forbade TK from betting.

Of course around that time they realized that Joe had the emergancy bag with most of the food. They decided that if they interrupted him it would void the bet, but their stomachs beat out their pride. Tai and Matt dragged the older boy away from the phone.

* * *

"Looks like we're not the only ones looking for lunch!" Gabumon cried as the digimon became aware of Shellmon.

"What's his favorite meal?" TK asked hoping they might be able to placate the Champion.

"For lack of a quicker explanation- us," Tentomon deadpanned.

"I don't wanta be eaten!"

"Then we won't let him!" Tai exclaimed. Tai tried to think back on the times he had caused Digivolution. Most of the time he had adrenaline clouding his thoughts, but the first time… there it was. All that energy that he could give to make Agumon stronger… now, if only he knew how to direct it. The device at his hip seemed to respond to his thoughts and "showed" him the path. Tai took grabbed it and smiled. "Take him down, Greymon!"

And Agumon had taken up his Champion form. The surge of power had been a high that was difficult to shake, however the reminder that this was a Water opponent to his Fire kept him from overconfidence. He watched the Shellmon come to close the range and couldn't help but think with a smirk, '_Dumbass, with that stupid shell of yours had you stayed away I __**might**__ have lost._' Greymon also noticed that his friends seemed to have a hard time using their attacks, weird, HE didn't have any issue. "Stay back, I'll take him."

The fight was child's play, getting under him, launching, and putting a little extra oomph in his attack to make Shellmon vanish in a data cloud to impress Tai. At this level he had barely even felt tired. This just felt so… _right_. This was exactly how it was supposed to be. "Nice job, Greymon. You finished him off faster than last time too! I think that was less time between Rookie and Champion as well!" Tai said. _'Though I think that says more about the danger we're in here as opposed to back home,'_ he kept that thought to himself.

Greymon seemed to swell at the compliment, though he deflated when he wondered if Tai knew that Parrotmon was an Ultimate, or understood how huge a gap that was. That deflation seemed to trigger he regression to Rookie. Something else he would later notch on his side when he found out that that _other_ Koromon had regressed to In Training. _'I'll prove it to you, Tai. I'll prove that I should be your partner yet!'_

"Well there isn't any value in staying here," Izzy said. "I can see nothing that would provide shelter, nor any sign that tells us where civilization might be found. And while Shellmon may be gone, nothing says that he can't come back or that something worse can't come for us. Besides I'm sure that someone else had to build these phones, why else would they be here?"

"So you want us to search the shoreline?" Matt asked.

"No, it would make most sense if they had a city, which the phones say they do, that they put those right by their source of fresh water. So the town is likely to be on the river, and since we've searched downstream…"

"That just leaves upstream," Sora finished

With that the group's course was set. Sometime after the group had passed the bank that had allow them to escape from the river TK spoke up, "_Sora_, look! It _does_ get dark around here! And Matt, _the sky_ says so." The rest of the group looked around and sure enough TK was right, night was approaching.

"Oh, I hope we find something soon!" Mimi spoke worried.

"Yeah, it's either that or a night in a tree," Tai said.

"I'd prefer it if we didn't have to climb," Izzy said.

"Well, let's keep going for a little while longer, and see what we can find," Matt suggested. The gamble paid off in the form of a lake and a road to the center of it where… there was a subway car?

"Again, proof of intelligence, seemingly randomly placed," Izzy muttered.

"Well are you coming or are you staying here and writing a Thesis on it?" Tai asked running ahead.

* * *

**Vigatus in a review mentioned that seeing a "Holy Greymon" would be interesting. While I knew there was no such thing in Canon I decided to do a search and got a result that looks really cool. However as I don't have a deviantart account and I don't know if "Hanugumo" has an account here I can't ask directly if I can use the character. If someone who knows Hanugumo on Deviantart and can put me in contact I'd be greatful.**

**Tai's fostering a competition he know nothing about.**

***The actual sentence that I and someone else got thanks to Google translate was**

**¡Son las dos de la mañana, _la gente normal está tratando de dormir_! **

**I tried to butcher it according to how someone might try and pick out words from _hearing_ it, not reading it. But I don't speak Japanese so I'm not sure where they'd find the word breaks.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Matt, can I talk to you for a moment?" Gabumon asked him after they had slowed their eating or the slightly suspicious feast in a deserted building. The digimon also motioned that he wished for privacy.

"Er… sure," he said getting up. Once the two were down the hall and a reasonable distance Matt asked, "What's up?"

"It's Agumon actually," Gabumon said as a way of beginning their talk. "Ever since you've come here he's _changed_, like he's anxious or something."

"Really? He seems fine to me."

"He tries to hide it," Gabumon explained. "He really seems to want to hide it from Tai. But there are times when we're all laughing and he just doesn't put his heart into it, or he'll cringe when he knows Tai's not watching. Or he'll wake up really early and head off to train, saying things like "I won't lose him," or "I'll prove to Tai I'm worthy." I just don't know what's wrong with him."

"That probably is serious, but why talk to me about it? Why not Tai?" Matt wondered.

"Well, I figured that since it's something that Agumon doesn't want Tai to know about that I should respect it, you know? But also since you two seem to be really good friends, you'd know how to talk to him if it happens to be something Tai really _should_ know."

"Tai, me, friends?" Matt asked bewildered. "I don't think so." Matt realized how this sounded and quickly tried to amend his statement, "Don't get me wrong he's a great guy, but we just met. You don't become friends that quickly, at least not usually- though not much of this situation _is_ usual," he reminded himself under his breath. Why _had_ he told Tai that their parents were divorced? It sure as hell wasn't for pity. Maybe because he knew Tai was also a big brother and would understand what this camp was supposed to mean to TK and himself. A rare chance to see his little brother again. Stupid custody laws, and why did his parents have to get divorced in the first place?

But Gabumon didn't talk to him to hear him rant about how unfair life was. He came here looking for advice for a friend. "I'll keep an eye on them, okay?" Matt said assuring resting his hand on his partner's shoulder. "If I can figure it out and Tai needs to know I'll handle it, alright? Now come on, we're missing dessert."

"You're the best, Matt!"

* * *

Matt thought things over while he and most of the others were in the indoor hot spring. When Matt was actually looking for it, he could see it so easily that he felt like an idiot because Gabumon had to point it out. How the hell had he missed them? How did Tai miss the signals? Or the others? He kind of had to sigh at that, he knew why. He and the others weren't looking, and as for Tai, Agumon kept putting up a front for him. But why?

The first thing he could think of was abuse and that couldn't be right, could it? It wasn't like the two went off into the forest for any period of time where the others couldn't hear. There really wasn't any time for him to do things like that. Unless it was while all the others were asleep, but that still didn't seem to fit. Mimi was a notoriously light sleeper and Joe would up at first scream. And Tai didn't seem like the type- okay disregard that argument, appearance and how someone acts around others isn't a litmus test for how they act in the dark. Really all it came down to was Matt really didn't know enough about the situation.

Tai splashed down, bringing him back to the moment. "You know, I've heard stories about the Digital World for so long," he said, "but I never thought that I'd actually be here."

"_I_ always knew, Tai," Agumon said.

"Yeah, well, I guess I should have known better than to think it was perfect, but other than some of the less friendly inhabitants I kind of wish that Kari could come. She would have loved it, but what are ya gonna do?"

Wait… what? Oh, right- Tai has a Koromon friend at home who's told him about the Digital World. Koromon was Agumon's previous stage. Heck Tai once called them siblings. And he suddenly had a memory, from before _THAT day_.

"_Mom! Can I get your help with something?" Matt asked._

"_Oh, not at the moment sweetie, your brother just scraped his knee. I'll help soon, though, okay?"_

"_Yeah, sure," Matt said slightly dejected. "Er… dad? Do you… I dunno do something this weekend?" 'The just the two of us,' part of the sentence was left out. Everyone knew Moms were the best when it came to stuff like homework, dads though knew all the super cool fun stuff- and they would actually let you do it as long as Mom wasn't around._

"_Sure, we'll go to our favorite spot…" Fishing- yay. Oh well, at least he got the hint, and maybe Matt would be able to use a "big boy" pole this time! "I'm sure TK would love it too."_

Matt cut that particular memory off before it got any further. It had not been one his proudest moments. But jealousy? It made more sense than abuse that was for sure. Still he wouldn't be able to be sure until he talked with Tai and Agumon. But what was Agumon jealous _of_? Tai had known the other Koromon first so if anything the other one should be jealous of _him_. This was complicated. Maybe of the fact that the other had been able to digivolve to Greymon and protect Tai and his sister? But Agumon could reach Greymon… though his record did leave something to be desired.

Kuagamon was… what should they consider Kuagamon anyway? The digimon had beaten him off but he had come right back. Though if his falling was any indication, it had been the last thing he had ever done. Shellmon? Win. Seadramon? Getting dragged under the lake and before reverting and having to be rescued was a definite loss. Meramon? Blasted the Dark Gear out before anyone needed to do anything- win. Andromon? Both he and Garurumon got theirs handed to them- loss. Monzemon? Cheap shot, didn't even give us the chance to try and evolve- but he'd count it as a loss probably. Unimon? Buried Greymon in the rubble, loss. Drove off those two though not alone, win. Actually most of the time it when he lost he just had a really bad matchup or tried to do way too much. But yeah, it looked like Agumon was jealous, now what to do about it?

His best option for now was to wait, watch, make sure he was right, and look for a time to talk to Tai. Because while Gabumon might want to respect that, this was something that only Tai could really talk to him about.

* * *

**For those who are lost there was a timeskip to about the middle of episode eight.**

**Also yes TK and Matt are Full brothers- the dub changed that because the US has different laws that deal with parental involvement than Japan does. Appearently in Japan the parent who doesn't get coustody doesn't keep their rights to see their kid. So the only time they can meet is as strangers on the street or if they're introduced a different way- I think. I'm not positive on just _how_ they are allowed to meet.**

**Come on did you guys think that Agumon's act would be perfect? Yeah right, the reason most of the kids haven't noticed is because they didn't know him _before_ Tai told him about the other Koromon- this would be so much easier if one/both had names, of course then_ all_ of the digimon would need names and I'm a lazy bastard.**

**Who did notice? Gabumon, who knew his before he met Tai.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey, Matt, where are you going?" Tai asked concerned, Matt and Gabumon really over did it trying to keep each other warm and ended up getting both of them sick.

"I'm going to get Frigimon to take me to another one of those islands. I have to find TK."

"Matt, stop," Tai called out to him exasperated. He got where Matt was coming from, he really did- but Matt running everyone- Matt included- ragged was not how to deal with the situation. "Think a minute, if you go now you'll make worse time because you're sick!"

"Shut up, Tai! I'm fine! You don't know me, or what I can take- so don't tell me I've gone too far! I'm not leaving TK alone longer than I have to."

"Matt, calm down. I know I'd be worried about Kari in this situation, but you've got to think farther ahead than seeing your little brother's face again. There's a lot wrong here, but there isn't anything we can do about it at the moment, give it another day and we'll go! Besides he has a digimon with him. He'll be fine long enough for you to get to him!"

"We don't know how strong Patamon will be when he goes to Champion- hell we don't even know if he _can_. I am not leaving him out there with some sicko who likens himself to the devil! We don't have another day, you idiot! If you're not going to_ help_ me, then get out of my _way_!" Matt emphasized his statement with a shove, planting the brown-haired boy's rear into the snow.

"If you took two seconds to think, you'd realize that I'm on your side! But if you won't listen to reason, then how about my fist?" Tai asked getting up and tackling the blonde into the snow.

"Stop it you two!" Gabumon called out.

"This isn't helping anybody," Agumon agreed, the two Rookies were unsure if they would be able to pull and keep the pre-teens apart so all they could do was watch.

"Frigimon, can't you stop them?" Gabumon asked the resident Champion.

"The way I see it, this is something they have to work out themselves," the snowman-like digimon responded grimly.

The two were too close together for straight punches or jabs to be effective so they kept mainly to hooks and elbows- which were technically worse. "Me not realizing something? Look who's talking!" Matt verbally jabbed, punctuating his question with a right hook to Tai's upper jaw.

Tai's eloquent rebuttal of, "What are you talking about?" was delivered in conjunction with a left elbow to the blonde's jaw.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe you should ask Agumon? It's sad you don't even realize something's wrong with your own partner!" he spit out along with some blood.

"Matt!" Gabumon cried, hurt that Matt had used information he had divulged to his partner to hurt another person.

"Say that again! I dare you!"

"Okay, fine. Agumon's hurt, you didn't notice. You made it worse! And if that's your kind of helping then kindly ignore me and let me find my brother!"

"You… SON OF A BITCH!" If Tai had been holding back out of concern for the other boy he certainly wasn't now. Wisps of … well, an orange something… trailed from his fists, arms, and body. He attacked every inch of pretty-boy face he could get to, eventually getting his knees straddling Matt's hips to have an easier time pummeling him because it prevented the other boy's escape. Matt's response was equally ferocious, replying to the pinned position by driving the heels of both his palms into the other boy's diaphragm- upon seeing Tai's natural reaction of gasping, he took the brunette by the head with his left hand and slammed an elbow into Tai's nose, finally taking full advantage of the other boy's surprise and throwing him off. Similar streaks came off of the blonde but they were blue in color.

Blood was quickly painting their battlefield dull red as it sank into the frozen water. On an interesting note when the two different types of wisps met the combined strand seemed to burn white.

After three minutes of continuous pounding, they rolled off of one another and lay there panting- ambient body heat quickly turning the snow below them into mush. Somewhere in beating the crap out of each other they had come to an understanding. Tai was going to help Matt find TK and he wouldn't rest until the two were reunited. Matt had been too close to the problem and needed to take a step back- so Tai would lead. His comments had also been out of line, if truthful.

A shadow loomed over both of them. It was Frigimon, he merely asked to two one word, "Better?" The two enthusiastically nodded in unison.

* * *

Sick days in the Kimiya meant exploration days, after all it was one of the few times that Koromon could play, move and respond to his friends. Previously he and the brother and sister had agreed that on the next sick day they would attempt to discern where exactly the Kimiya matron learned her recipes. She did not use a standard cookbook.

And while she said that they were recipes from her grandfather and that she had long ago memorized them, the three were in agreement that she must be forgetting at least one _tiny_ detail, because she would always say that her grandfather had been a much better cook than she was and that if he had prepared the dish everyone would be jumping out of their seats to eat it.

She would also talk about some of the bedtime stories that he had written over in America during World War II about a different world filled to the brim with knights, dragons, dinosaurs, and cyborgs and how Man's desire to live could even change the mind of gods. The man had never published the novel, written in the form of journal entries by a young man named Marcus. The man would always tell her that it hadn't been finished yet.

Marcus, the man who challenged a god and won, along with his younger sister their closest friends had been called by the god they had previously fought because the negative emotions of humans had adversely affected one of the strongest denizens of that world and they had to stop him before he ruined the world and peace everyone had worked so hard for.

In the last chapter, they separated the essence of the dark emotions of humanity from the entity saving the world again. However in response, the darkness grabbed the man, his sister, and three of their friends- along with the five beings to whom they had been willing to share a soul with- taking them to an unfamiliar place. There the dark feeling split into two, one becoming a grayscale beach and the other smaller one attempting to come back to life. The five souls fought valiantly and sealed the darkness twice, separately. They separated the evil sea from the world which reminded them of where they had once come from, and sealed the evil being behind an eternal wall of flames.

Then the humans and their closest allies were separated, and that is where the book ended.

And Koromon just got his ears on the manuscript. Even though the recipies were in there, they quickly faded from his mind. "Kari! Come over here! You've got to read this!"

* * *

**It's a pain to try and write characters on the breaking point, even when you understand their motivations. It's an annoing mix of In Character and OOC. ;p**

**Well not counting Request, which I don't count as a story, I have over 100,000 words logged today. That is counting ANs but I don't have a counter for those so it's harder to tell when I've broken a new threshold with just story.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey oh, quick little update on thiings before we get to the good stuff. Still haven't been able to get into contact with "Hanugumo" on Diviant Art. If anyone could help with that I'd be very appreciative. Can you put up annon comments on that site now? Also edited a major typo in chapter one. Anyway this takes place during episodes 13&14.**

* * *

Tai had just stripped Ogremon of his hostage and Greymon was fighting the evil Champion. They could hear Garurumon and Leomon going at it across the clearing. Or at least they were until there was a loud displacement of earth and a cry of "Garurumon!" Oh, this was not good- two on one; this was bad, very bad.

Greymon was focusing on Ogremon, hoping to take him out before the evil digimon's reinforcements arrived. It didn't happen. What did happen was that he noticed an attack streak towards him from the left accompanied by Tai calling, "Look out!" In response Greymon jumped back far faster than anyone would give him credit for, much to the surprise of his opponents and everyone else. Greymon also watched the attack sail by as if in slow mo. Okay think, Leomon has taken up right in front and is aiming up without worrying about hitting the Village; I should be able to dodge those attacks. The only problem is which way? If I go left I might accidentally hurt Tai, if I go right I open myself to both attackers. Those were decidedly not good options.

However before he had to choose a Howling Blaster interrupted Leomon's charge, forcing him to abandon the attack. Wolf and Lion began their fight anew while Greymon tried to cook up some Ogre Stew. But oddly for the two partner digimon it was almost as if their opponents were in water the way they came at them.

"Why do we have to fight Leomon?" Patamon asked somewhat dejectedly. "He was always such a good digimon."

"Maybe we don't," interjected a new voice from above. Izzy riding Kabutarimon joined the fight. "If we use the power of our digivices we can drive the Black Gears out of Leomon without a fight."

"Do you really think he's just going to stand there and let us do that?" Matt snarked at Izzy.

"No but that just means we have to hold him down," Tai replied.

"Then perhaps we can help," a familiar voice came from around a bend. It was Mimi and Togemon. With ease Ogremon was sent packing. Now it was four on one, where Leomon had no way out.

"Alright everyone, hold him and let's get Leomon back to normal," Tai called. With that Leomon was rushed by four Champions who were very insistent that he stay still and four humans wielding the digivices him their hands like purifying prayer slips.

* * *

Just after everyone had come together to defeat Devimon, they met this weird old guy, who Tai was beginning to think was seriously pulling their legs for no other reason than he thought it would be funny. "Come on, I've gotta get back home. Kari's sick and I'm not sure what will happen if mom finds out we've been keeping a digimon in the apartment for the last four years. Besides, I kinda want Agumon to meet Kari and Koromon."

All Geni said was, "I'm sorry that I can't help you with that." However his thoughts were, _'He survived? We sent him first because he was shown to be the one who would fall in battle! We had hoped that in having the younger protecting those two and marking the others that we would save them heartbreak, as they would be too young to understand and would forget. It seems that we have only made the pain to come worse. Children, forgive us old fools in our ignorance.'_

Agumon's thoughts on the matter were quite obviously different. '_Tai wants me to meet his sister and Koromon? I… I think I'm ashamed because I still can't help but feel that pang of jealousy. I don't think it might ever completely go away but, I look at the others and they have only one partner. Tai has two, and though I might never even have met Tai if it wasn't for Koromon and yet I feel as if he stole what was mine before I had a chance to claim it. …How pathetic am I? Thinking of Tai's partnership like a trophy instead of as a bond born of overcoming hardships together. Though I do wonder, if he knew of me, how would he react?_'

* * *

"I can't really say why I'm writing these now, the adventures I and the others shared are long away now. And any evidence we might be able to use is a long time in coming," Koromon read aloud. "But feel I must write this, if only so that I can remember them correctly. It seems so strange to me that I now live in a time that we studied during history class. Pretty soon TVs will become popular, man I miss channel surfing on DATS plasma- I'm going to have to settle for four channels and a cathode ray tube. When I suggested that Thomas improve the tech level he actually socked me, I think he's taking this worst out of all of us. We've pretty much given up on getting back. I wonder if they're mourning us, or if the sentence should be they will, or if they will even exist?

"Thomas, dad, and the Criers have done more extensive research on Digisoul or DNA than I can understand. One thing that I do get and that we were very quickly able to figure out is that emotions play a huge part in how Digisoul affects a digimon. If a digimon or a human are sharing a soul and one has dark intentions and the digimon attempts to use that power to evolve, then the digimon turns either even more malicious than it was before if they had the bad intentions. The other- and quite possibly worse- option is what happens when the human forces dark emotions through the bond those two share causing the digimon to go berserk. Given that those forms are often destructive enough on their own; this is often a recipe for disaster. The only true upside to this is the fact that berserkers, by their nature, are unable to make any sort of plan, so a technically weaker opponent can defeat them. I've seen if many times, I am sad to admit that I was the cause of this once.

"But I must make a point to define "dark emotions." It is harder than you would think. I could just say anger is bad- but that isn't always true. Anger has it's time and place- actually it would be better if I called them dark intentions, because that is the best explanation of what they are. Feeling something is a reaction; acting on it is the intention. I can take that anger that I feel and direct it in one of two ways, at the enemy to make them pay, or at the enemy to protect others and myself. That subtle distinction means the world. I have been told that my most defining trait is my Determination, but it can only be called that when I am fighting to protect what I hold dear. Should I use it just to harm other beings it becomes Obstinacy.

"The difference between the two is that when I am Determined I am going to keep getting up because there are people behind me that I'm not going to let you hurt. When I'm Obstinate I keep getting back up because I want you to bleed. Such a small difference really, in a way the only thing about it is perspective. But when it comes to Digivolution it's night and day, or should I say Ruin and Burst.

"Perhaps I should explain what I mean when I say that a digimon and a human are sharing a soul. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that "Digimon don't have Souls" or any of that! But when a digimon and a human form a bond or a partnership their souls intermingle, so that power from one is in truth power from the other. The greatest symbol of this link is the digivice. While it is not strictly necessary for an evolution, it makes the process incredibly more efficient allowing that energy to transfer like it was Superposed. At least that is how Thomas describes it. What Nerdstein forgets is that I don't know what that means.

"Anyway, DNA can be used for many things; one of the main purposes that we found was digivolution. That isn't all it can do however. It can be the digimon's equivalent of adrenaline, allowing for Supermon feats of agility and strength, humans can use it for these purposes as well. I can also recall at least one instance where it was used as an energy source for one purpose- making heat. But then again is that really that surprising when Digisoul is the manifestation of a beings desire to live?"

* * *

**Okay, so Tai and Agumon haven't really talked yet, but Tai kind of gets that Agumon was having issues with Koromon. What he doesn't realize is that Agumon didn't want to meet him.**

**There is this Marcus's explaination for dark digivolution. That is... if he's real. Maybe he's just someone who Tai's greatgranddad made up. It's up to you really to decide. No, he's real and that is how I think digivolving works. Unfortunately for Tai, all that information warning him is in the human world were he can't get it! :D ...I feel like such a jerk.**

**Geni is the original troll, at least for me. He's the first one I ever saw.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Alright, important that I bring this up. Within the next few chapters there are going to be time... shanagans, so until I've dealt with both sides on that I'm not publishing chapters of this. I'm still working on it- It's just I'm probably going to have to get into season two before I can put these next few arcs up, so on your end this story is on Haitus, I'm still working on it, you just won't see the effects for a while.**

* * *

"We've got to show this to Tai," Kari said excitedly.

"Mum-hum," Koromon nodded. "He's going to be so jealous that he missed out, only spending a day at that stupid camp." The girl nodded and laughed. Tai would really regret that he missed out, even though he was doing it for them.

"This has to be real right?" Kari asked the digimon.

"Definitely, he was able to identify my line all the way to champion with only minor discrepancies and even then most digimon have a large evolution tree. Sure some details on the form were a bit off but there are some differences even among digimon of the same species."

Kari gazed dreamily out the window to the sky. "Do you think we'll be able to go someday? That we'll have a digivice?"

Koromon thought it over. "Probably, this thing says that digivices aren't necessary- and it sure explains what happened four years ago- but from what I've read it does seem to be the norm. Hopefully though, we won't have to deal with a Demon Lord or Ygdrasil for that matter! "

"Why, scared?"

"Yes, actually," Koromon replied. "I might have been able to take down a Parrotmon, but this Agumon," he said pointing an ear at the book. "He was in another league. Heck, he was in another league of another league! Maybe further!"

"But that Agumon had only one partner," Kari reminded him. "We'd be there for you, both of us. Besides, where's your sense of adventure?"

"Being pinned down by my desire to keep you protected at all times," Koromon replied not missing a beat.

Kari frowned at that. "No fair, now I feel bad for trying to make you agree with me."

Koromon smirked. "I learned from the best," he replied. At that moment things began to get strange. Because out of nowhere I light engulfed the room. When it had faded, Koromon had tattoo swords on his ears. The blades were identical, each one was a straight double edged sword with a gold base color and red highlights. There was also a screeching from under the table.

Recalibrating…

"What the heck?" Kari shouted into the din as she covered her ears.

Recalibrating… second partner signature detected.

"I don't know!" Koromon yelled in turn.

Adjusting functions. Recalibrating…

Kari fished out the source, finding a digivice that was going haywire.

Recalbration complete.

And just as suddenly as it had begun, it sound stopped.

The two stayed in the same spot for a few moments as what just happened washed over them. "Did you…" Kari began to ask. Koromon shook his head no. They both looked at the device in her hands that never should have been capable of such a screeching noise. "Do you know what this means?" Kari asked beginning to get excited, as Koromon began to groan.

"WE'RE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!" she shouted and began to laugh triumphantly.

"But Kari… you're sick," Koromon reminded her.

She looked at her first (non-blood-family) friend, and smiled confident in the world and life in general. "It'll work out. It always works out in stories!" She began to walk into the kids' room. Koromon sighed not wanting to point out that in fact, one it didn't always work out in stories- sometimes the bad guy won, and two,_ this_ wasn't a story- they had no guarantees of success.

"Hey… Hey! Where are you going?" He called out moving to follow.

"I can't go on an adventure in my PJs, silly!" She was at her dresser trying to find something that said "I'm going on an adventure, and we're going to have lots of fun."

"You're sick." She had found something.

"We've been through this already, it'll work out. But we have to find Tai. Who knows what could happen if we went without him, I mean this has to be half his too, right?" She began to change clothes.

Koromon intently began to focus on the wood grain on the bed trimming. It ran in complicated swirls that seemed natural except for the fact that those patterns usually formed horizontally and he couldn't think of a tree wide enough to have a diameter of the Kamiya Siblings' bed, except maybe a redwood but those were kinda rare and trimmings like this were very popular so that couldn't be it- or couldn't just be it. Then there were other things to consider like-

"Done," Kari said as Koromon began to look in her direction again- boys. Then she noticed something. "Hey, Koromon, what happened to your ears?"

The In Training looked at her befuddled. "Dunno, they were like this after that freaky light show. They don't hurt or anything and I didn't feel anything as they came in so they shouldn't be bad."

"If you're sure…" Suddenly, Koromon took on a look of extreme pain and began to cry out about how much pain he was in and how they wouldn't be able to go. It probably would have been more effective if he hadn't first tried overselling it and second adding that hopeful plea to his statement that usually tells people that you're lying. "Nice try…" Kari said smiling wryly. "I give it an eight."

Knowing that the jig was up Koromon huffed, "That was _so_ a nine."

Kari laughed and picked the In Training up. "Come on, let's go!" And as they headed out the door cradling the book under one arm, she closed it saying "ADVENTURE!"

Unfortunately it was only when the two were at the park that Kari realized the basic flaw in her plan. How were they supposed of get out of the city and all the way to Tai's camp and where was it anyway? Not that she'd ever mention that to Koromon who would use it as an excuse to keep her inside. Honestly, everyone treated her like se was made of glass or something! She had gotten sick once! She was fine! They didn't need to worry. They didn't need to scare her- staying up so late watching her sleep. It wasn't a relapse alright!

"Hey, looking for someone?" a boy around her age called out. Kari jerked out of reverie and to the boy. He had just lost some of his front teeth, and had a sun-made redish brown crop of hair sticking up at every angle possible and a deep tan- obviously _his_ parents didn't mind him spending so much time in the sun.

"I'm on an adventure!" she replied with a smile. "My brother's at camp and I have to get this book to him." She nodded to the ancient tome she had juggled back and forth between her arms over the course of the trip here.

"Really?" the boy asked. Kari nodded. "That's so cool! If you need help I'm sure my sister, Jun, could help you out. She's bigger so she can go where she wants. I'm Davis by the way." He held out her hand for her to shake it, which Kari reciprocated.

At this a girl of about twelve walked up and put her hand on the top of Davis's head and rubbed it affectionately or embarrassingly depending on who was asked. "Hey, Squirt, making moves on the ladies already? And they say, kids your age are too young for that kind of thing." Koromon began to tune the conversation out and unnoticed to the general population began to look around for something to hold his interest.

"…I don't think so. We're all going to wait here for your folks or your brother. I am not letting you wander around Japan on your own nor will I help you with this foolish idea. So let's all just sit on this bench-"

Unfortunately, he found something rather quickly. A freaking Ogremon! And it was coming at them- FAST! "MOVE!" He leapt up to counter the Viral Champion, feeling something he hadn't for four years, Digivolution. "**Pepper Flame**!" the newly digivolved Rookie called. The attack was like an incendiary round out of a cannon and impacted with the force of one. Sadly this did little more than stop the Ogremon's attack and outline the Virus in flames for about a quarter of a second. "Hold on to me!" Agumon called as he began to run putting distance between him and the Ogremon.

Davis saw Kari listen without question and made a descision. He grabbed the Reptile's other shoulder. As Agumon ran Davis turned around to look at what they were running from. And he could see it. It was a _really_ hazy barely a blur of green and brown, but he _could see it_. And it was becoming much sharper and much, _much_ closer. "Left!" And the Rookie listened jinking left and twisting just in time to keep both himself and his two passengers from getting his by that club.

"**Pepper Flame!**" Point Blank, no room to dodge and it barely singed the Champion. Not good. The two children were behind him, he was pretty sure they had fallen off but couldn't twist his head to confirm. The Ogremon brought his club into position for an overhead swing, deflecting the blow wasn't an option. Even if it didn't hit one of the children directly he didn't want to find out what would happen if the shockwave connected.

The club came down. He raised and crossed his arms for a bad block, and the strange things that had been happening all day continued. DNA activated, a heritage was unleashed. Visible only to the Ogremon the Rookie's eyes shown with a brilliant white light. A form was taken, it was undefined- hazy. Agumon could only wield a hundredth of a thousandth of the power in that form at the moment but that was enough. He didn't need more to finish a Champion of no real importance- in fact he could have made due with much less. Before the club could strike it was in ten pieces and the Ogre was in five hundred thousand. The One of Greymon Lineage reverted, unconscious. And Koromon and Kari began to fall _up_.

Kari reached for her first friend and held close. Davis didn't know what was happening but he wouldn't just let it. He jumped on both of them and refused to let go even though they didn't slow at all. Jun caught up to the children leapt and was able to grab Davis's foot. They twisted until Davis was below Kari and Koromon and holding on for dear life with three limbs, with Jun grasping his remaining one. Somehow Kari still had the book with her.

Davis eyes flicked between Jun and Kari. Jun knew what would happen- she knew her brother far too well. Davis would try and pull her up and they'd both fall; they weren't high up enough to kill but it wouldn't be pretty. He was torn between helping her and making sure that whatever happened to Kari she wouldn't be alone. He was too nice sometimes. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew he couldn't decide between the two of them. So she made the choice for him. Her grip slackened by a quarter of an inch. He slipped from her hands. "Jun!"

She looked down and got her feet under her and tried to cushion the fall, so instead of breaking a fibula she merely twisted an ankle. She looked back up at him and smiled. "Keep her safe, Davis. …And if you're not back by dinner I swear I'll have your hide!" As she watched them disappear a thought struck her, "What am I going to tell Mom and Dad?" Then she looked around at the scene of destruction. "Forget Mom and Dad, What am I going to tell the cops?!"

* * *

Four Ultimates gathered in the shadows. One of them spoke to another, "How goes the search on your end, SkullBalchimon?"

The Data quadroped looked at the one who had spoken answering, "Etemon had found the Koromon Village, even if his methods leave much to be desired we will soon have what we need, Triceramon."

The named digimon nodded. "Then we shall be able to take the Four Weapons and clean out the trash from this world."

Another unidentified digimon queried, "And what of the Chosen? What if they interfere?"

SkullBalchimon fielded this. "We will take the weapons- but not harm the children or the digimon. This is not a fight for children," he stated in a brisk, no-nonsense tone.

"Understood," the third replied- though the way it spoke implied its true feelings.

"I mean it, Deramon! If I find out you have harmed them in any way, I will _end _you."

"You try dealing with Puppetmon day in and day out," Deramon retorted.

"Enough!" Triceramon roared- this was a conversation had far too often. "We know what's going on; we know what we need to do. Therefore, I suggest we _do it_!" he said before stalking off.


	8. Chapter 8

**I goofed. I miscounted on what scenes would be in what chapter. Next chapter is the one that needs the work over.**

**Also at E: Your right that the scene is missing context. I just thought it would be annoying trying to map out perfectly the time in the Real World with Digital Time, so I gave you what would be happening to Kari and Koromon during this time all at once and then went back and now we're going to be seeing wht Tai's been up to while all that has been going on.**

**One more thing: I have new found respect for the Writers of the Original show. Even though this stiry has a main focus on Tai's family at the moment. I still try and give the others at least a little scene time. It is freaking HARD! And the original writers were able to juggle eight characters for abour fifty episodes. Tha is very impressive.**

* * *

Cowards… wouldn't stay still… meanwhile he had to or the Koromon behind him might get caught in the crossfire. If there were one less he'd have roasted them by now… Actually, _there_ was an idea. If he focused on one completely- it was risky, but as it stood he was going to lose otherwise. The left one seemed cockier; he'd have better luck there.

* * *

…Far away, Tai's digivice began to react to the fact that his partner was in danger…

* * *

One to the feet to make him jump, then ripple spread shots to get him moving and hopefully only one more to take him down. He had maybe eight shots left. "**Pepper Breath**. **Pepper Breath. Pepper Breath. Pepper Breath.**" The two scattered. Agumon tracked his target as the Gazimon moved away from his partner. Lead the target… "**Pepper Breath.**" …Damn, got a foot down and got out of the way, only one thing for that-

"**Electric Stun Blast!**" Pain laced up and down his body, there was the other one, but that would have to be for later, right now he had to take down the Gazimon he had tripped up.

"**Pepper Breath.**" …Direct hit. Agumon began to smell singed fur- that should keep that Gazimon down for a bit at least.

The other one began to back away. "Aw mon," the other Rookie muttered.

"**Pepper Breath.**" The other Gazimon fled from the fireball and down the river as fast as he could. Got 'em. He was tired but he couldn't stop there. The other one would wake up soon and Tokomon and the Koromon were still locked up. Resting would have to wait. He forced himself over to the still unconscious Gazimon and the dragged himself and the Gazimon to the water's edge. Then he threw the Viral Rookie as far as his current strength would permit. The digimon hit the waterfall, went below, and was carried to the other side by the current, which then continued to haul the digimon down the river and away from them.

Gasping for strength he pulled himself over to the cages. He was tired, oh so tired- but he was almost done, almost done. Just gotta open these… He couldn't really hear any more- no that wasn't right… he just couldn't bring himself to focus on noises, or smells for that matter. Just get the job done- he had enough strength for that… right? …Just gotta hit it…

Once… twice… thrice… four times… ten… the cage broke. Had he cared enough to listen, Agumon would have heard the cheers from the Koromon he had released. But all he could hear was his own heart and breathing. Almost done, and then sleep… Just gotta do this… Almost there. He began to swing again. …When the last cage broke, he paused, smiled at his work, then flopped onto his back- out cold.

After the Koromon freed Tokomon, they curled protectively around their savior. Such was the scene that the Digidestined came upon as Tai followed the signal of his digivice. "Whoa… What's going on here?" Tai asked looking around. His eyes widened. "Agumon!"

"He'll be alright, Tai," Tokomon said. "He's just probably tired from fighting off two Gazimon and breaking us all out."

"Tokomon!"

While T.K. focused on Tokomon, Tai focused on his own partner. He really was something else. "Alright, everybody hands in the air now!" _'What?'_ Tai turned around. _'Are these guys serious?'_ The Gazimon from before had brought the Pagumon who had stolen the Koromon's village. _'I'm pretty sure we've got them out numbered and out gunned.'_ "Lord Etemon will be here soon, so give up now!"

"No way." "What did we ever do to you?" "Bullies!"

"Shut it! If you had just told us what we wanted to know about the Weapons we would have been on our way!"

"Digimon like you and Etemon will never be allowed to know the Secrets of the Four Weapons!" one Koromon, who Tai suspected of being the Elder, declared.

"Well unless you feel like telling that to Etemon's face I suggest you shut up and back up right now! I'm going to teach that punk Agumon a lesson about messing with the wrong Digimon!"

"I'll get him for you, boss!" one of the Pagumon declared hopping towards the unconscious Rookie.

Something in Tai snapped. "Get the _fuck_ away from my partner, _asshole_!" he shouted, crossing the distance and intercepting the In-Training in a blink. And then, years of playing soccer took over. The unfortunate Pagumon flew up and through the waterfall disappearing from sight. "Goal." Not bad for a One-Timer. Tai didn't even notice the orange digital flames surrounding his kicking foot.

"Digisoul," the Elder Koromon muttered, staring at Tai.

"Get them!" the singed Gazimon shouted more than a little freaked out by Tai's display. From there it degraded into an all-out brawl. Tokomon rushed out in front of TK, fearless in his In Training form and looking for payback now that the numbers were more even. But unfortunately there was only one of him and he could only take on so many at a time. Another Pagumon rushed at the youngest child intending on ending this as they would have a hostage.

Matt didn't like this idea. Matt showed his displeasure at the idea by stepping in front of his younger brother and waiting for the Pagumon to leap forward. At such a time, Matt had his fist meet the Pagumon and send it reeling back into the previously unharmed Gazimon as the latter was preparing to attack, for even _thinking_ about such an idea, much less acting upon that thought. This caused the attack to blow up in the Gazimon's face. Blue data flames surrounded Matt's fist. "Don't even _think_ about touching my little brother, or I'll kill you myself!"

"What's going on with you two?" Izzy wondered, somewhat worried for their health. Spontaneous combustion was rarely a good sign, outside of TV shows that is. And while Izzy doubted this was a TV show- the premise would be too strange- he did have to force himself to remember that this world had its own form of internal logic and definitions and scale of weirdness.

"Dunno, but it doesn't seem bad so let's just go with it!" Tai replied, before ferally grinning at the Pagumon.

Further discussion was broken up by a new voice speaking in what anyone could recognize as a _bad_ Elvis impersonation, "Now I want to know somethin'." An orange monkey about the size of an adult human that had a teddy bear at its waist walked into sight. "Which of you is responsible for this!" he said holding up the Pagumon that Tai had kicked earlier. "He almost messed up my incredibly gorgeous jaw line, and I don't take kindly to that. So fess up, which one of you is responsible?"

As one the Koromon tribe responded, "Oh no, it's Etemon!" They would have added more to that, but their tree revolved around bravery and determination- not suicidal stupidity.

Mimi meanwhile cried, "Uh oh, Touchback!"

"Thank you, thank you, very much," the Viral Simian responded to the introduction. "Thank you for those kind words. I'm touched, so I'll dedicate this little number to _you_." He said before beginning to "jam." The Digidestined and the Koromon immediately covered their ears. The Gazimon and the Pagumon didn't, but each one had discomfort written on their faces, looking like they were constipated.

"This isn't Rock," Joe shouted trying to make himself heard. "This is just _noise_." Apparently, the cave agreed as it began to shake loose and collapse to avoid having to hear _that_ anymore.

An actual rock interrupted Etemon's "music." The Perfect only then realized the danger that he was in. "Oops, looks like the encore is gonna have ta' wait!" he said before running out of the entrance.

As he left and the Digidestined removed their hands from their ears Sora looked forlornly at the entrance, "Now what are we going to do? I'd rather stay in here than have to deal with that guy again, but I also really don't want to die just yet."

The Elder Koromon came to a decision. "This way!" he called, the Koromon Tribe as well as most of the Digidestined and their partners followed immediately. Tai, Matt, and Gabumon only slowed down enough to sling Agumon onto Tai's back and then they were following the others.

"Wouldn't Garurumon be able to help?" Tai asked as they ran.

Gabumon shook his head. "The cave is too small for me to be able to react quickly and there are too many Koromon for me to be able to reasonably carry. Chances are you'd all just fall off and waste time!" Tai nodded at the reasoning. Still they were against the clock and right now the clock was winning.

"This way," the Elder said shepherding everyone into a tight squeeze of a corridor. TK and Tokomon, though powered by fear were slowing down. Matt grabbed his brother and put him on his back. Tokomon, able to guess what would happen had jumped onto TK's hat. Just as the Elder hopped into the corridor himself the cave fell in behind him, kicking up a huge plume of dust and debris. Thankfully, the route that they were in was constructed to be far sturdier than the cave and so the shaking stopped.

Now out of immediate mortal peril, the group advanced at a slower rate. Ahead, Tai could see everyone bunching up at a corner and picked his way around the Koromon to see what was going on. About ten meters from the turn was a huge wall with a sun insignia on it.

As he approached it began to glow orange and shrank revealing itself to be his Crest. Sliding it into his Tag he smiled. Looking back up he saw, just behind where his crest had been, a gigantic and far more ornate carving of the sun, seemingly held by an enormous pair of hands.

"This is the door to Greymon Valley," the Elder spoke up from behind him. "It was settled long ago by the first Greymon to ever achieve the Mega Level. This door is to keep the intruders out. Long ago we ourselves lost the ability to open it, but we still know how. Let it know your Soul and it will grant us passage," the Koromon told Tai.

"My soul?" Tai asked him.

"Digisoul or DNA Charge, if you prefer," the Elder told him. Seeing Tai's confusion only get worse he sighed and deadpanned, "The Orange flames." The Koromon smiled as the boy's eyes began to sparkle in understanding. Deciding to wing it, Tai thought about when he had manifested the ability- as that had been all of fifteen minutes ago it wasn't that hard.

…It was just like- no it _was_ what he used to Digivolve Agumon. He compressed the power into his hand, igniting the appendage though he felt no pain. Then he put his hand on the orb that seemed a rendition of the sun and pushed. A smile voice whispered to his mind, "_Show me your strength_."

"Alright, you asked for it," he whispered back with a grin plastered to his face. Then he wound up and punched the sun for all he was worth. Digisoul rushed out of his fist in a flood and the rock drank it in. The sun relief sprang to life, igniting and burning away the rock until the corridor was unblemished and no sign of the door's existence remained. And at its end they could see a light. They were almost out of the tunnel.

Tai ran forward with a cheer and he took him his first sight of Greymon Valley. Like the surrounding area, the forest was lush with trees that would never grow together in the Real World- at least, not naturally. The valley was made of rolling hills of the piedmont on three sides, with the mountain they were still in marking the fourth boundary. In the distance he could see an old statue that had been weathered greatly but still stood tall and was relatively recognizable, which given the vast amount of detail put into the carving was no small feat. "Tomorrow," Tai heard a voice from behind him. He turned to see the Elder Koromon speaking to him. "After you have eaten and rested, gather your friends and come to the statue. There and then I shall tell you the history of this place, I would begin now but it is only right that your partner knows his birthright when you do." Tai nodded looking back fondly on Agumon's unconscious form. He knew he could always count on a Greymon, even if they weren't at that level yet.

* * *

Fourteen travelers sat down as the majority of the Koromon Village worked, gathering food, water, or repairing the damages time had inflicted on their statue. On the pedestal, at the statue's feet was the Elder Koromon. Tai and Agumon were to his right.

"As I said in the tunnel, this valley was first settled by the first Greymon to achieve Mega. He and four others were the First Partner Digimon." He waited for the gasps to die down as the children realized that if there were Partner Digimon then there had to have been Humans in this world before as well. "In total they settled in four vales. Eventually, all five passed on and became Digieggs that just wouldn't hatch. Oddly, even though there had only been five Digimon there were six Digieggs. ShineGreymon, our patron split in twain. We tried everything that we could to get the Eggs to hatch but they never did. Eventually, one who was and wasn't human came to us and said that he had found a way to make the Digieggs hatch. It would take many years- thousands- but he could do it. Filled with hope we gave him the Eggs.

"After he had left we found that we could not enter the Valley. It seemed as if our patron's blessing had abandoned us- _or_ we him," the In-Training darkly added. "We never received confirmation that the Eggs had ever hatched…" At this point he paused, and looked directly at Agumon. "…At least until now.

"I doubt you remember, child, you were so exhausted- but you manifested Digisoul when you broke our cages. The last Greymon that could do that was ShineGreymon himself. _You_ are of ShineGreymon's brood- born of his data. That which he left is your birthright." Everyone's gaze turned to statue, its eyes firmly locked on a mountaintop outside the Valley proper.

"Birthright, huh?" Tai asked. Then he grabbed Agumon in a headlock. "Hear that, buddy; you've got some regular Blue Blood in you!"

"Ah, yeah. Sure, Tai," Agumon muttered still in a daze.

"What he left?" Izzy murmured.

"In his right hand," the Koromon spoke. "In his right hand is the GeoGreySword. It is one of the four artifacts that they left behind. One of the Four Ancient Weapons. Etemon and his goons are searching for them, why I do not know. But you must go and retrieve them yourselves- lest, I fear, they fall into wicked hands."

"Sure we'll all go and-" Koromon interrupted Tai with a declarative shake.

"Only you two may go. ShineGreymon had a Partner who could match him blow for blow, though the man could not stay long in this world. With this in mind the armory was built. The place where the Sword is kept, only those with DNA Charge may enter unscathed. Only two, possibly three or four can make the trek."

"But Matt can do that DNA thing too!" TK spoke up.

"He can," the In-Training acknowledged turning his gaze toward Matt. "But it is the DNA of another color- the Digisoul of another Tribe. It is likely that he as well will have a quest for a Weapon in his future, but not today. This is a Quest of Greymon. And so only a Greymon's Soul will advance."

"Sweet," Tai said excitedly. "So where do we have to go?"

Koromon lifted his gaze to the statue. "ShineGreymon sees his blade even through the earth," the small Digimon said. "It answers his call.

"Out there, huh?" Tai asked the sky.

"One more thing," Koromon called. "On the pedestal is an inscription. It should be of use to you." The writing was old and had been worn away by time, however the Elder had long ago memorized it and so he chanted, "In Gaia's Womb Lay that which was Crafted for the Tribe Favored by the Stars, Helios the First among Them."

"What do you think it means?"

And at that point the one Digimon they wanted to hear least butted his head in. Etemon had gotten his minions to covertly render unconscious every other Koromon in the area while he listened in on the Digidestined's conversation with a microphone. "Well I'm not sure but my bosses will sure thank you kindly for giving us what we wanted."

"Etemon, how did you get here? That cave collapse should have taken weeks to dig though!" Koromon gasped.

"It would have, but really did you think it would be that hard to hide an edible tracking device in your food? When I saw y'al had survived since you were out of the mountain I decided to mosey on over here and take a look see and hear. And I've got to say this'll make a great place for my next concert! Why just change that statue a bit to one of me and it'll be perfect!"

"I'll never let you desecrate this Valley!" the Elder shouted trying to rush Etemon. The Perfect replied by swatting the In-Training to the side. Gazimon quickly swarmed the Digimon, trying to gag him.

"Now then," Etemon said turning to the Digidestined. "Why don't you be nice boys and girls and come with me. My bosses would like a word with you." ThePerfect began to laugh.

"Not going to happen, Laughing Boy!" Tai shot back. "Let's see how funny you find Seven Champions! Everybody, Digivolve now!" The Digidestined prepared for battle. Tokomon however still had not recovered enough to make the leap from In-Training to Cahampion and so only became Patamon.

"Sorry kids, I can't let you do that. **Dark Network Concert Crush**!" Etemon's attack sapped the strength of the six Champions reverting them to Rookies.

"What are we going to do?" Joe asked. This was bad; they'd never faced an enemy capable of removing their Partners' ability to Digivolve before.

"Digisoul!" the Elder called out. A Gazimon tried again to gag the In-Training, who in response bit the Gazimon's closest arm. The Gazimon reeled his hand back in pain and the Elder Koromon repeated his advice. "Use Digisoul! It will counteract Etemon's power!"

"You heard him!" Tai said looking at his partner. He called on his ability to strengthen Agumon once again. "Let's go, Greymon!" The newly evolved Champion was awash in flame. Greymon's eye's snapped open.

Etemon grimaced and pushed air out from behind his teeth. "Like that'll work **Dark Network**-" Before the Perfect could finish his attack Greymon was already moving. The Champion crossed the gap and was in front of the Perfect swinging a claw.

"Wow!" "So fast!" "Amazing!" "Prodigious!" "We'll be able to do that soon, right Patamon?"

The Elder Koromon smiled as the Gazimon stood stock still at the sight of a Champion going toe to toe with Etemon and what's more _winning_. _'Fools,'_ the In-Training thought. _'What is this Perfect to one of ShineGreymon's Legacy?'_

Unnerved, Etemon decided to go with speed over power. "Let's see how you like this, **Dark Network**!" he shouted, throwing a sphere made of pure darkness at Greymon.

"**Nova Blast**!" the Champion replied. The two attacks collided in mid-air briefly vying for supremacy. The miniature sun then imploded, referencing its namesake. The blast tore through the Dark Network attack, as well as throwing up a flash-bomb and a gust of wind that had anyone had the right equipment would have clocked in at forty-five meters per second.

When Etemon removed his arms from in front of his eyes he was greeted with the sight of Greymon lashing a blazing leg at him. This time the Perfect couldn't avoid it and was sent into the sky. Before the Virus had a chance to recover Greymon acted. "**Nova Blast**!"

Still loopy from the one-way ticket to the clouds Etemon had no chance to prepare a defense and was hit full on. The searing flames tore at the Perfect live a pack of ravenous wolves, deleting the digimon before he hit the apex of the arc.

Greymon then turned to the Gazimon and growled out one word. "Next." The sight of the Champion that had just defeated their master still ablaze and ready to fight sent the Gazimon running as if Lucemon himself was on their tails.

Once he was sure they were actually gone, Greymon's countenance softened and he snorted. "Cowards, each and every one of them," he muttered. The DNA charge died down, and Greymon became aware of cheering. At some point during his fight, the Koromon had all managed to get free and were praising him for removing the threat to their village. He began to smile even as he reverted to Agumon. Looking at the statue of ShineGreymon his face broke out into a full mad grin. Today was going to be a good day he could feel it.

* * *

"Etemon has been defeated," Deramon stated.

"But we have what we need," SkullBalchimon replied. "This saved us the hassle of dealing with him as well. I, for one, will be glad to finally be able to sleep without earplugs."

"Where is Triceramon?" Dramon asked, noticing the lack of their fouth member.

"He is trying to enter the Armory of ShineGreymon and retrieve the Sword before that boy and his Greymon arrive. He had to hurry as they are much closer."

"I still don't understand why you are so uptight about not attacking the Digidestined if they go for the Weapons. We need them; they don't, it's as simple as that."

"We don't attack _children_!"

"Those _children_ just took down a Perfect level opponent. If we don't respect their strength we will be next!"

"We are adults, they are children. It is not right for an adult to strike a child, especially not for profit. It is also not right for an adult to stay back and do nothing while children fight our battles."

"What's stopping them from fighting _with_ us?"

"Principle," SkullBalchimon replied. "And when we have the Weapons, we will be strong enough that they won't need to."


End file.
